European Council: State of play and next steps Matthew King, DG RTD, Open Unit 5 December 2016 1
Political Context "Europe does not yet have a world class scheme to support the very best innovations in the way the European Research Council is the global reference for supporting excellent science. So I would like us to take stock of the various schemes to support innovation and SMEs under Horizon 2020, to look at best practice internationally, and to design a new European Council" Commissioner Moedas 22/06/2015 2
A few clarifications No plans to: Create a new institution Change the H2020 legal framework Switch money away from basic research to innovation 3
The EU is already making major efforts to boost innovation Leveraging more private investment (Investment Plan, Capital Markets Union, venture capital Fund of Funds ) Improving regulation (Better Regulation, Principle ) Strengthening markets (Digital Single Market, Energy Union ) Funding research and innovation (Horizon 2020, EIT-KICs) Building regional capacities (European Investment and Structural Funds) 4
but losing the race on scaling up disruptive, market-creating innovation On scaling up: US: 101 Unicorns China: 36 Unicorns EU: 19 Unicorns Unicorns' are start-ups with market value > $1 billion Source: Fortune, 'The Unicorn list 2016 On disruptive, market-creating innovation: s that create new markets and jobs not just improving existing products and services, not just tech (also business model) Major new markets led by non-eu companies 5
Are we reaching out to the top innovators? Commission programmes and processes (e.g Participant Portal, length of forms) not perceived as sufficiently innovator-friendly Very few high growth European innovative firms participate in Horizon 2020 Main focus in EU programmes is on 'incremental' innovation Are EU programmes geared towards high risk projects? Do we employ enough evaluators with deep background in innovation and/or investment? 6
DG RTD ran a call for ideas spring 2016 1000+ replies to Call for Ideas, including 100 position papers 80 % agree that a lack of disruptive, market-creating innovations hampers growth in Europe http://ec.europa.eu/research/eic https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/pdf//eic_call_for_ideasoverview.pdf#view=fit&pagemode=none https://ec.europa.eu/research/eic/pdf/workshop/eic_workshop_summary_report_final.pdf#view= fit&pagemode=none 7
Inclusive process Stakeholder meetings e.g. July 2016 workshop on outcome of Call for Ideas Regular engagement with national innovation agencies (Swisscore a major player!) (i) meeting with Commissioner June 2016 (ii) expert workshop October 2016 Issues discussed: Reforming EU instruments for innovation (SME Instrument, FTI, FET Open) Good practices for evaluating bottom-up proposals for market-creating innovation Non-grant support for SMEs, midcaps and scale-ups (loans, venture capital, mentoring and other advisory services) 8
EIC pilot 10 points 1. Establish a Group of Advisors to provide a user perspective on EU innovation support and advise Commission on reforms 2. Revise Horizon 2020 work programme (2018-20) with simple presentation of instruments targeting market creating innovations 3. Make SME instrument fully bottom up with continuously open call 4. Strengthen evaluation criteria to focus on market creating innovations, with potential to scale, and higher risk profiles 5. Revise and accelerate evaluation process with face to face interviews with teams and faster results (5 weeks rather than 5 months) 6. Provide access to mentors for project teams, targeted to their specific needs 7. Test out new scale-up instruments, e.g. reimbursable grants, blending grants and financial instruments, etc. 8. Gather real time data and intelligence, tracking performance of projects and feeding into policy 9. Work in partnership with existing initiatives - EIT, EIB Group, Eureka, VC and business angel communities for sharing data & intelligence 10. Improve Horizon 2020 website/ participant portal with dedicated space for innovators with advice on funding opportunities 9
High Level Group of Advisors ~12 personalities with a good track-record in starting and scaling up innovative businesses and/or investing in innovative ventures. Mandated to give advice on: a) The design and implementation of an EIC pilot for the years 2018-20 b) Future design and delivery of EU funding and other support for market-creating innovation under FP9 The Group will start work early 2017 (and interact with Lamy Group) 10
First elements of an EIC? 11
Start Up to Scale-up Communication "Europe's Winners of Tomorrow: the Startup and Scale-up initiative" adopted on 22 November 2016 (tbc) "To improve innovation support, the Commission intends to make changes for the remaining period of Horizon 2020 to provide bottom-up support for breakthrough innovation projects, and will consider reinforcing this approach in future through a European Council. 12
Next Steps DG RTD will develop a dedicated EIC part in the 2018-20 Work Programme Ongoing stakeholder discussions, e.g. meeting with Strategic Programme Configuration on 24 November Link up with H2020 Interim Evaluation and engage in preparations for next Framework Programme (Impact Assessment etc.) 13
Conclusion Horizon 2020 has made a good start with new focus on innovation But more could be done to boost impact of EU support for breakthrough innovations that create and capture new markets Means reaching out to new class of entrepreneurs/innovators Step-by-step process: preparatory measures in 2018-20 potentially leading to a fully-fledged EIC in FP9 14
Thank you! Matthew.King@ec.europa.eu 15